B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Search Engine Marketing No Stranger to Top Execs

January 8th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

ClickZ’s Kevin Newcomb has provided a nice summary of early results from the annual search market survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

One of the more dramatic year-to-year changes involves the attention being given to search marketing by senior executives. In the 2005 survey, under half of senior management respondents said they were either moderately or very involved in SEM programs; in the 2006 survey, that number leaped to 90 percent.

“Online spending is reaching record levels. Smart senior management is seeing that search engine marketing is no longer a minority player. It is an essential part of being a successful online business,” says Kevin Lee, Executive Chairman of Did-It and a member of SEMPO’s Board of Directors.

“Search engine marketing has moved to the major leagues. Corporate advertisers are now dedicating funding to SEM, and it makes sense they are expecting a clear return on investment from these new budgets,” said Dana Todd, Executive VP of SiteLab and SEMPO President.

A remarkable 42 percent of the respondents say their SEM budget is a new allocation. Where budgets were simply shifted around to favor SEM, the biggest loser was print. (This is consistent with other results we’ve seen lately; for example BtoB Magazine’s 2007 Marketing Priorities and Plans survey, capsulized in a recent posting on this blog.)

The survey results show that organic search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be the most popular form of SEM, although its lead over PPC is narrowing: 83 percent report organic SEO is their top choice, with paid placement following at 80 percent.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing, PPC, Search Engine Marketing